Working as an independent contractor has a lot of perks. Especially in a place like Vancouver, BC.
You get to make your own hours which means that you can hit up YYoga at any time during the day or go for a hike with friends in Deep Cove whenever you like. You have easy access to world-class restaurants and galleries and, without having to clock in, you can be sure to avoid the crowds.
But it’s not all workouts and martinis (or craft beer), there’s a lot of stuff that comes with the whole “Independent contractor” moniker that lots of newbies don’t know they don’t know.
First of all, you have to be incredibly organized with your time. If you’re not, you run the risk of disappointing your clients or worse, not making enough money to stay in business.
There are lots of sites on “the google” that will tell you how much to charge for your services but not many that will be upfront about what it really takes to be a successful online marketing professional. So here’s a list to get you started. (this is, by no means, a comprehensive template for starting your own contracting business but rather a couple of tips and things to consider before you do.)

know your expenses – you have to know how much you need to make before you can figure out what to charge.

have a process – if you don’t know about project management, learn. It will be the single most important tool you use to successfully shepherd a project from concept to completion. (and it will make you look like a pro)

learn from the pros – if you don’t have a Marketing degree, you’ll need to get some learnin’ under your belt. Find the best people and ask them for help. Go to Lynda.com and take as many courses as you can. ALWAYS BE LEARNING should be your mantra so you can stay ahead of the competition.

network like mad – kind of like the last point, networking and learning from peers is critical for success in any business. Find a meetup or business group that meet in your area and join in.

my dad, a successful life insurance salesman for 50 years, has a great saying: “Always be closing”. ABC. It’s a bit different with Social Media because it’s not “sales” per se but ABC is a good thing to keep in your head. I would say STP (solve the problem) would be more applicable, but you get the gist.

be authentic – you’ll hear this a lot…like A LOT! but you really do need to be yourself and be honest in what you want. The minute you have an ulterior, non-transparent motive, you’ll lose the client.

finally, be brave – contracting is not for the faint of heart. You will have months where you make $0 and others where you make 10x what you need. Plan. Be smart.

I love being a contractor. I love the freedom it provides and the crazy creativity that comes from being able to step out of a structured environment to think. If you need structure, it may not be for you but if you are the type that thrives on expanding the traditional notions of work, you may just love it.

Revelation: something revealed or disclosed, especially a striking disclosure, as of something not before realized.

How many of us in Canada (or the US or UK or any other developed country) understand how incredibly lucky we are?

I’ve just started reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book, David and Goliath, and the revelations in it are staggering.

For example, the notion that so many of us have had about going to the “right” school for a post-secondary eduction has, for generations, set many up to fail. He sites case after case where kids who’d been wizz kids in their high schools had gone on to ivy league schools and failed because they couldn’t keep up. His proven premise centres around the fact that we are hard-wired to compare ourselves to our peers. At Harvard you could end up a small fish in a big pond. Compared to your classmates you may even begin to think you’re not too terribly bright.

When you look at that same condition, comparing yourself to your peers, you can see how many of us in the developed world tend to whinge and complain about our own situation. “I don’t have enough money, time, friends, toys, etc…”

We find things to complain about all the time. Even when we have reached the goals we’ve set we find something else to complain about. “My kids are too spoiled. My car isn’t cool enough. My dog has fleas.”

I have often found it useful to inject a little perspective into my life. Sometimes I’ll take a drive downtown to see just how bad some other people have it. I like to watch TED talks to find inspiration. I meditate and try to keep calm about the things that I can’t control.

It’s not always easy to remember that we have it great here but if you take a page out of Gladwell’s book and try to stop comparing yourself to your peers you may find that you move through life with a little more grace and happiness.

So my New Year’s Revelation is to make sure that Social Media Canada stays true to its business philosophy; help others, be socially conscious, be an active participant in doing good works.

Bring it on 2014! I can’t wait to see what adventures you have in store for me.

In April of 2012 I was hired to teach Audiences and Social Media at Vancouver Film School. Since then I have been given the great, and amazing, opportunity to add 2 additional courses to my repertoire; Developing Online Communities and Corporate Social Responsibility.

I love teaching. I love the students. I love the passion they have for their craft and their future. I love that most of the students that arrive in the program didn’t excel in an education “system” that sets anyone with a creative bend up for failure.

Vancouver Film School is the place where the class clown and the class geek can get together and create an award winning entertainment property, from scratch. Magic happens here!

I’m very proud to be a part of the VFS Entertainment Business Management program and I’m excited to see what new, amazing, creatively charged, unique stuff 2013 brings!

The film program put together this beautiful “year in review”. Check it out!

If you’re a Recruiter and have ever posted an ad on Craigslist you’ll know that, doing so, garners you a million emails from people who are ridiculously un-qualified.

When I was a Recruiter for a video game company in Vancouver, I would post all over the place hoping to get 1 out of 50 applicants who actually had a clue what we were looking for. I particularly loved the guys who would send a cover letter that started with: “I love to game. I’ve been playing COD for 5 years and I think I can design/build games really good.” These were often 17 year old boys who have not seen the light of day or the inside of a shower for many months.

ACK!

The problem with posting jobs on CL is that you get a plethora of emails that you have to shift through in order to find that one, great candidate. It reminds me of the mid-90’s when every animation school student, or kid with 3d Studio Max on their home computer, would send in an unsolicited VHS reel. I remember sitting in the head Recruiter’s office, as a PA, watching endless, dreadful, tapes of crappy animation.

Craigslist respondents are this generations crap-tastic VHS tapes, and worse. At least the VHS tape contributors spent some time, did some research, made an effort. Oftentimes when you receive a response from Craigslist, the applicant has no idea what the job entails and has barely skimmed the posting. They see “GAME STUDIO” and just apply, hoping for a miracle. You, on the other hand, are stuck with 50 emails/day that are useless.

Perhaps the biggest tragedy of the CL posting is that you may miss that one, amazing candidate that you’ve been looking for. After sifting through 50 emails you get cynical and cranky and stop reading. What if the best candidate isn’t a great email writer? What if he/she fails to catch your attention? You’ll miss them.

Worse still, a Recruiter is the face of the company. What happens when you miss the great candidate and they find their way in another way, only to rat you out to your boss that you missed them. As a facilitator you need to respond to the emails, be respectful, find that great candidate AND please the hiring manager.

There’s a much better way.

Most of your best candidates will come from referrals but you may not get enough referrals or you may not have a large enough reach to get the candidate you want.

Using a targeted social media campaign designed with the specific intention of “pulling” the right candidates to you can take you from a good Recruiter to a great Recruiter. The best part is, once you learn how to do it well, the candidates will start to come to you because you have established a trusting relationship prior to the recruitment process.

If you want to be a rockstar in your company, show this post to the head of HR and book me for a lunch and learn. I can show you how to effectively leverage social media to expand your reach and get the candidates you want.

Here’s a hint: if you meet with resistance explain how your time can be better spent by not having to read a 50 emails a day from guys (and girls) like the one in the post photo 🙂

When social media was the newest kid on the block there was little regard for “best practices” or etiquette. Everyone was just really concerned with “doing” social media, getting a presence out there and hoping for some sort of return.

There were a lot of social media failures. Businesses that jumped on the social media train early, and incorrectly, came to the conclusion that it didn’t work, that it was a waste of time. Why?

Well, we’ve learned that putting out sub-par content and expecting people to lap it up, simply doesn’t cut it.

Your audience wants great, awesome, useful, relevant, helpful, sharable content. They don’t care much about how great your company is or what you’ve done in the past. That’s for your marketing department. The marketers can toot your horn and sing your praises. Social media has a different mandate.

Social media sites and networks were not developed to promote and sell your business, product, service etc. They were created so that people could share experiences. Facebook is so popular because friends, old and new, can share in the cool stuff you’re doing in your life. It’s a bit like the Christmas letter but shorter and much, much less boring.

Your friends want to know that you spent an amazing day with your kids on the ski hill. They want to share your Hawaiian vacation. Sharing those moments with you gives them a sense that they’re connected to you. You have a relationship.

On the other side of the coin, sharing those experiences or inspiring content makes you feel great. If you help your friend out of a funk with a photo of a sleeping kitten you get some satisfaction from that.

Social media wasn’t created for business. Remember that. It’s important.

With that mantra in mind you can develop your social media strategy. A great way to think of what constitutes appropriate content is to think about what you might say to someone at a cocktail party. I call this the “cocktail party test” (not very inspired but I bet you remember it 🙂

If you’re about to post some content take another look and determine if it’s something you’d share with someone you’re standing face to face with.

“Hey Bill, my company just landed a huge account and we’re about to become the #1 potato retailer in the country! How cool are we?” Remembering that you don’t really know Bill personally, do you think he’d care? Probably not.

On the other hand, if you said something like: “Hi Bill, did you know that potatoes can lower your cholesterol? There’s a cool new study out of the University of Spudland that found that men over 60 who eat 4 potatoes/day can live an extra 10 years. Crazy hey?” (I don’t think this is a true statement by the way, just a little fun, potato humour)

Giving Bill some interesting information that he may want to share with others is what social media best practices are all about.

So, Rule #1 – Don’t Be A Jerk means, think about what you’re putting out there. Don’t abuse the trust you build with your audience by wasting their time. Give them something they can use, you’ll get considerably more engagement and interest that way.

Recently I was speaking to a friend of mine who was very put out by the use of the term “social good” to define all manner of behaviour. In particular, he was annoyed that many organizations and charities continually ask for donations under the guise of a socially good mandate.

Asking for something and claiming that it will contribute to the good of society is akin to guilting someone into cleaning out the gutters; sure it’s better for the house but what’s in it for them? (Though I will allow that there are some people who derive great satisfaction from home-maintenance I think they are in the minority.)

The “what’s in it for me” philosophy runs deep in our society. So deep, in fact, that I find it one of the biggest challenges to explaining what I do for my clients. Some people have a lot of trouble understanding that the notion of looking out for #1 is no longer a sound business practice.

Take a company like Toms Shoes for example. Owner Blake Mycoskie didn’t start a shoe company to make money. He was traveling in Argentina and met a bunch of kids who couldn’t afford shoes. His motivation for Toms Shoes was to shod these kids by creating a product and business philosophy that could empower people to contribute to the greater, social good. His solution was to sell Toms Shoes in the Western world for a fairly high price ($60/pair) but to donate 1 pair of shoes to kids who need them for every pair sold. Creative and profitable!

“What’s in it for me” didn’t enter into the equation because Blake understood what motivates us. A sense of purpose. Stores can’t keep Toms in stock because everyone wants a pair. It makes them feel good about themselves to help others and the Toms product is trendy, cool, comfortable and pretty dang swanky. In fact, in a business where knockoffs are the norm, Toms enjoys an enormous market share. People don’t want the fakes because the fakes don’t give them that sense of purpose.

Toms isn’t the only company that have figured out that providing people with a sense of purpose can have a profound effect on the bottom line. Companies like Patagonia and Whole Foods have long put forth the philosophy of “what can I do to make your life better?” rather than “what’s in it for me?”

When I go in to speak with a new client I ask them what they hope to gain from their social media strategy. The most common answers include, more brand awareness, more customers, more sales, etc. I allow them to voice their expectations and to suss out just how much they know about the social science behind motivation and online marketing before I hit them with my #1 rule for success online.

Rather than asking the question “what can social media do for my company?” organizations, (corporations, charities, etc) need to ask “what can we do to help others find purpose in the decisions they make?” and “how can we build long-lasting, trusting relationships with our clients/customers?”

There will always be those organizations that can’t get their head around a new business model that requires corporate social responsibility as a core philosophy and to them I say, be careful. Why would someone deal with your company if working with another makes them feel they are contributing to the betterment of their society?

So, to recap for my friend; “social good” is figuring out what you can do to help others and build strong, trusting, long-lasting relationships. It is not using guilt to goad others into supporting your cause, company or product even if it may contribute to the greater good. (oh, and it isn’t giving lip-service to corporate social responsibility. Especially in this day and age where the internet will rat you out faster than a Kardashian runs toward a TV camera.)

If it weren’t for the CBC and McLean’s Magazine, a google search for Stephen Harper would turn up a helluva a lot of negative publicity.

Simply by adding one word to the search….let’s say “jerk” the entire search result changes to articles calling him a douchebag and an idiot. There is no love lost, online, for our Prime Minister.

I can’t help but think that having someone monitoring his Social Media could only do some good for his rep. I mean, if he knew how much negative stuff was out there, wouldn’t he want to address it?

Perhaps he doesn’t care much what Canadians think. Maybe he is content to allow the old school popularity contest that is Canadian politics to give him enough confidence in his ability to do the bidding of the people.

The thing is, Steve, the prevailing attitude online is that you’re a knob. (for those not familiar with this English word, knob means penis) A day does not go by without at least 1, but usually several, posts about what an idiot you are and the harm you’re doing to our beautiful country.

Check out http://sorryworld.ca/. A web page entirely dedicated to the crap-tastic decisions that have come out from “The Harper Government”. (I’d like to add another. Changing the name of the Canadian Government to the Harper Government. Who the hell do you think you are? The Queen?)

A few short years ago I was infinitely proud to be a Canadian. I am a liberal to my core. I believe that you should be able to worship, love and vote for whoever you damn well please. I believe that teachers should be paid more than pro athletes (except hockey players because, after all, I am Canadian!) I believe that marijuana should be legal and taxed and that the resources wasted in catching pot smokers should be used to help get crack off of our streets.

I believe that we should not allow American’s to bully our native people and build pipelines through our beautiful forests. I believe that Canada should be a leader in environmental reform and restoration and that the rest of the world should have to catch up to us rather than the other way around.

I believe that while Tim Horton was a hero, Tim Horton’s restaurants should be held accountable for their environmental impact.

I think that we’re smarter than our Prime Minister believes us to be and I truly, 100% believe that we can use our collective power to start to move toward putting someone in Ottawa who actually loves our country and wants to see it flourish rather than flounder.

Mr. Harper, you’re a tool. You clearly dislike Canada and are willing to sell it, piece meal, to the highest bidder.

We’re not going to let you. Good luck with your next campaign. I think you’ve just about made us mad enough that, even as Canadians, we’re going to stand up and say “enough!”.

Vancouverite Shane Gibson, owner of Socialized.me, gives a great talk here on how to engage on social media in a respectful and relevant way. It’s 15 minutes that will infinitely improve your online presence.

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This client needed a site that integrated with online travel agents and merged calendars for guest bookings. While the design is simple and elegant, the backend is very robust. I added an additional solution to give hotel staff on the ground the ability to take bookings over the phone or in person without sacrificing the calendar sync.

This site was created to compliment North and West Vancouver Realtor, Elizabeth Dyer's, growing real estate business. Liz felt that providing people with real experiences from the North Shore would help them get a true feel for what it's like to live in this amazing place. The site is growing daily with new posts and new tech like vlog posts!

I created this site for my daughter Layne who is just about to graduate high school. We worked on it together as a tool to help her realize her dream of becoming an Interior Designer. The site is used for post-secondary admissions and scholarship opportunities. It also showcases many of Layne's extra curricular activities.

Jacquie McCarnan is the National Director of Social Media and Online Outreach for the Women In Leadership Foundation. She is also "keeper of the brand". With chapters in 4 Canadian cities, the WIL online presence is an extremely intricate part of the Foundation's overall community outreach.
We conceived and built individual sites for each chapter, trained each chapter rep and provide continued support through the national head office site.
By giving the chapters some autonomy to construct their own content we have seen a considerable increase in online engagement; not only from the website(s) but from all social media outlets as well.
We also initiated, planned and constructed processes to make the social media engagement a turn-key solution for each chapter since all chapter members are volunteers.
In less than a year WIL has become the most robust online presence of all Canadian women-centric non-profits. (big round of applause :)

“I started Social Media Canada in 2008 to help others realize the power of Social Media to affect change. Since then so much has changed. Social Media is now used to inform, to condemn, to inspire, to do just about anything. There's a lot to know and I'm here to help you learn!”